Cardiac recovery will be assessed by the clinical status of hemodynamic stability defined as no need for pharmacological or mechanical cardiac support. Systolic function will be measured by echocardiography .

Hyperinvasive arm encompasses immediate institution of a mechanical chest compression device (LUCAS) and pre-hospital intraarrest cooling by Rhino-Chill device. Immediately after institution of these two devices the patients will be directly transferred to cardiac center cathlab under continuous CPR. The use of drugs and further defibrillations are on a discretion of the emergency physician. After admission to cathlab, overall status, ROSC presence and ECLS inclusion/exclusion criteria will be evaluated.

Patients in standard arm will be further managed as per recent ERC guidelines, ie. continued ACLS. The use of drugs and further defibrillations are on a discretion of the emergency physician. If ROSC is attained, patients will be transferred to the same hospital to one of intensive care units, coronary angiography/PCI will be performed only if indicated according to routine practice and mild therapeutic hypothermia will be instituted as soon as possible as per recent guidelines recommendation.

Other: Standard care

Standard care as per recent guidelines will be provided.

Detailed Description:

Background: Out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) has a poor outcome. Recent non-randomized study of ECLS (extracorporeal life support) in OHCA suggested further prospective multicenter studies to define population with OHCA that would benefit from ECLS.

Planned intervention: patients with witnessed OHCA without ROSC (return of spontaneous circulation) after a minimum of 5 minutes of ACLS by emergency medical service (EMS) team will be after fulfilling of inclusion/exclusion criteria for the study randomized in a 1:1 design to standard vs. hyperinvasive arm. Patients in standard arm will be further managed as per recent guidelines. In hyperinvasive arm, mechanical compression device together with intranasal cooling will be immediately instituted and patients will be transferred to cardiac center directly to cathlab under ongoing CPR. After admission to cathlab, overall status, ROSC and ECLS inclusion/exclusion criteria will be evaluated and in case of no contraindications to ECLS and no ROSC or ROSC with shock, veno-arterial ECLS will be started as soon as possible, not later than 60 minutes after cardiac arrest onset. After ECLS institution, mild hypothermia will be continued by means of ECLS cooling and immediate invasive investigation will be performed in all patients.

Standard postresuscitation care will follow.

Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:

18 Years to 65 Years (Adult)

Genders Eligible for Study:

Both

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

No

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

minimum of 18 and maximum of 65 years

witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest of presumed cardiac cause

minimum of 5 minutes of ACLS performed by emergency medical service team without sustained ROSC

unconsciousness (Glasgow Coma Score < 8)

ECMO team and bed-capacity in cardiac center available.

Exclusion Criteria:

OHCA of presumed non-cardiac cause

unwitnessed collapse

pregnancy

sustained ROSC within 5 minutes of ACLS performed by EMS team

conscious patient

known bleeding diathesis or suspected or confirmed acute or recent intracranial bleeding

suspected or confirmed acute stroke

known severe chronic organ dysfunction or other limitations in therapy

"do not resuscitate" order or other circumstances making 180 day survival unlikely

known pre-arrest cerebral performance category CPC ≥ 3.

Contacts and Locations

Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below.
For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01511666